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Thursday, August 31, 2017

The statistics
about worker disengagement are staggering. We read all the time about how workplace
engagement levels are low here in the U.S. and even lower around the world.
Loss of productivity is estimated to cost employers hundreds of millions of
dollars annually, if not billions. And it all stems from how disconnected folks
feel from the people working around them, the work that they do each day, and
the purpose that it serves to them and to others.

Workplace
connection results in many benefits, including stronger communication, greater
synergy, enhanced anticipation of others’ needs and worries / concerns, and,
last but certainly not least, increased worker engagement. When we feel
connected, we operate with a sense of purpose and utilize our many talents and
abilities to advance that purpose, consciously as well as subconsciously.

The need for connection
at work is perhaps stronger today than ever before. It has become an
expectation, especially amongst younger workers, that the workplace be a source
of meaning and intention, not just a place at which to collect a paycheck.

Ironically, the
technological communication that has become the hallmark of Millennials –
texting, social media, and the like, even when in close physical proximity –
has in many ways served to connect us only superficially, leaving us hungry for
the deep, meaningful and fulfilling linkage that only direct, interpersonal
communication with real emotion sharing can achieve.

Without
question, it falls on the boss to create a culture that promotes engagement
through modeling, messaging, and educating. The following are tips to help
leaders create an engaging workplace that gets the most out of its workers.

1.Create a clear visionLeaders
have the responsibility to be visionaries. Particularly in today’s
uber-competitive marketplace, it is more critical than ever for leaders to understand
their roles as storytellers and dream weavers in order to inspire continued
motivation, creativity and growth.

There are four things to keep in mind when communicating a
vision. One, a vision should be simple, vivid, impactful and repeatable. Simple
means that the meaning is plain and uncomplicated. When President Kennedy
presented a vision for the space program, he did not indulge in complex
verbiage. He kept things simple. The goal is to land a man on the moon before
the end of the decade (1960’s). Though he did not live to see it, the steps of
Neil Armstrong made his dream a reality.

Two, a compelling vision is vivid. Metaphor, analogy, and
example all serve as excellent ways through which to crystalize the objective.

Three, visions
should be impactful and include big ideas. Big ideas are what get people
excited. People want to feel motivated about coming to work and doing their
jobs. They want to feel that what they do matters.

Finally, visions should be repeatable. Distill them to but a
few words, a catchy slogan, jingle or mnemonic. The idea should be able to be
spread by anyone to anyone. In this way, they are kept front and center in
people’s minds and have the greatest impact.

2. Make people feel valued

Workplace
morale rises when workers feel that their efforts are valued (oral
acknowledgments are good, written notes and goodies are even better) and they
are given a chance to shine. They also begin to see their work as part of a
bigger effort, which adds to their feeling of belonging.

3. Communicate clearly and often

People are more
engaged when they are in regular touch with their superiors and peers and
receive valuable information that helps them do their jobs and stay connected
to the goings-on around them.

4. Give them a voice

Close the
circle by making communication two-way. Give your people the chance to have
their voices heard, in (depending on your company size) town halls, small group
meetings or one-to-one conversations. Also use surveys and similar data
collection tools to gather feedback.

5. Make room for mistakes

Mistakes are
inevitable, especially when we ask our people to leave their comfort zones to
learn new skills and take on new projects. Communicate that effort is most
important and that so long as your people are making their best efforts,
mistakes will not only be tolerated but even valued.

Naphtali Hoff,
PsyD, (@impactfulcoach) became an executive coach and organizational
consultant following a career as an educator and school administrator. Read his
blog at impactfulcoaching.com/blog
and his new leadership book, "Becoming
the New Boss."

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Great leaders
understand the value of showing appreciation to those whom they are leading.They realize, by building a
culture where all team members feel valued and actively support one another,
the goals of the organization will be reached more efficiently and not at the
expense of wearing out all who are involved.

Misguided
leaders believe supporting and encouraging employees is a waste of time.As a result, they wind up spending a lot of
time and energy replacing key team members and trying to resolve innumerable
petty conflicts and complaints which siphon off resources needed to accomplish
their goals.

The Need

Many, many
workplaces (or departments) are characterized by disrespect, a lack of trust,
cynicism, apathy, condescension, gossiping, and an overall negativism – which
lead to low productivity.Why is there
such a theme of negativity and despair in most workplaces?Because people want to be appreciated for
what they do at work.But,
unfortunately, most people don’t feel
appreciated at work. And the evidence is almost overwhelming.

Sixty-five
percent of employees report they have not received any recognition or
appreciation for a job well done in the
past 12 months.Job satisfaction
ratings continue to be low and Gallup reports only 30% of employees are truly
engaged in their work.Some polls show
that over 80% of employees report being bored at work.Of those who leave their employment
voluntarily, 79% report one of the primary reasons they leave is because they
don’t feel appreciated (and they rarely leave just for more money.)Conversely, a global survey of over 200,000
employees found that the #1 reason employees enjoy their work is when they feel
appreciated for what they do.

The False Knight in Shining Armor

Employee
recognition programs were supposed to be the knight that saves the day.And these programs have proliferated to the
point that HR firms report that between 85–90 percent of all businesses have
some form of employee recognition program.

Good
reasons exist for the focus on employee recognition. In the early days of
recognition, employees were rewarded for work well done and for reaching
established, measurable goals. Problems developed, however, when higher-level
managers saw the benefits (in terms of profitability) to the company, and they
began to create more and more ways to incentivize (and recognize) employees to
“do more.” This essentially became a classic example of the belief that “if ‘some’ is good, ‘more’ should be better,
and ‘a lot’ should be great!”

The
result is that the many employee recognition programs have been developed in
ways that make recognition empty and meaningless. They have become mechanical,
impersonal, generic and viewed as inauthentic. The three most common responses I
hear when I talk to employees about their employee recognition program are
apathy (“Yea, I guess we do. I don’t go any more”), sarcasm (“What a joke!
Everyone gets the same certificate and gift card”) and cynicism (“They don’t
give a rip about us – it is all to make them look good.”)

Appreciation
focuses on performance plus the character qualities of the team member and
their intrinsic value as a person. As a result, team members can be valued and receive
appreciation even when they don't perform well. (Anyone else made a mistake
lately?)

Appreciation
has dual objectives: to improve performance but also to support and encourage
the person. Team members often
need a word or action of encouragement especially when they aren't performing
at their best because of other issues going on in their lives.

The
goal of appreciation is what is good for the company and what is good for the
person.If a colleague communicates authentic appreciation it is based
in a foundational concern for the individual (which may mean helping them find
a position that is a better match for them than their current role.)

Appreciation
requires more than behavior, it requires "heart attitude". This is really the
difficult part of appreciation - it has to be genuine and from the heart. You
can't fake it.

Appreciation
can be communicated in any direction. One of the exciting lessons I've learned is that colleagues
want to know how to encourage and support one another. Appreciation can be
expressed from anyone to anyone else in the organization.

Building a Culture Isn’t Easy

Developing new
behaviors for ourselves is clearly possible (although not always easy), and
creating new ways of relating between colleagues can also be done (again, often
with time and concerted effort).Building a new culture, however,takes a dramatically higher level of
vision, commitment and duration.But it
can be (and is being) done!

Here are the
key components for changing a workplace culture: - Share the vision of where you want
to go and the end result desired;

- Communicate the foundational
principles of the culture you want to become; - Repeat the information multiple
times, in multiple places, in multiple ways; - Provide the resources needed
(information, tools, time) to implement the concepts; - Give practical action steps
individuals can take and the opportunity to practice - Create and use visual / graphic
reminders and short symbolic sayings as reminders; - Structure activities into existing
individual and group processes; - Celebrate your new values and
priorities - if possible, incorporate food and music; - Set boundaries on your priorities,
which will require saying ‘no’ to other good things.

Wise leaders
will accept that it takes time to change a culture – both a commitment of daily
and weekly time, but also continuing to work on the goal over a period of
time.Those leaders who remain committed
to the goal then will experience the incredible benefits of their perseverance
– a vibrant, functional and positive workplace!

Friday, August 25, 2017

The reasons employees may be absent from
work are varied and many but the bottom line is, absenteeism has a larger cost
associated with it than many people realize. In the United States on a yearly
basis, absenteeism costs companies just under $3000 per salaried employee,
while the cost is just under $4000 per hourly paid worker. These cumulative
costs can become quite significant, which means companies really should look
into implementing systems which help them to keep track of work force absences
and attendance, so that they can effectively put measures in place to stem the
effects or adequately fill the gaps with less significant cost.

Why
Absenteeism?

While it is expected that workers will
at some point be absent from work through scheduled time off, as with vacation
leave or departmental days, there are also unexpected
instances. It is the latter which makes planning more challenging,
especially when the length of time away is not known or cannot be determined.
Sick days or other eventualities such as when a worker needs to stay home to
care for an ailing child or personal business, are among the reasons for
unscheduled absences. There is also absence associated with unfavourable
weather such as during blizzards and snow days. Employees may also opt to take
time away from work because they may be experiencing undue stress on the job,
may be dissatisfied with the job or may take time off to facilitate a job hunt.

Partial absences which also impact a
company financially occur when an employee shows up substantially late for work,
takes long lunch breaks, or asks to leave early. In these situations, one off
partial absences will not be so significant, but sustained and habitual
behaviour certainly will.

The Effects of
Absenteeism

All of these instances create situations
where other employees may be required to fill the gaps for the business to
function smoothly. As a result, over time work generally becomes necessary for
damage control, which inevitably increases the payroll bill, while the absent
employee will still need to be paid although not on the job.

The effect continues with a drop in
productivity because of the reduced staff complement and restriction in the
scope of operation of a department. This is especially felt when the missing
employee is highly skilled or plays a critical role within the company. Workers
who are not as well equipped with the particular skill sets required may be
given the responsibility of attending to those functions. Here is where a drop
in efficiency will be seen, because they cannot move at the preferred pace and
may not necessarily possess all the know-how required to do an effective job.

The ripple effect continues with the
remaining members of the work force who are required to fill the gaps becoming
over extended and feeling stressed and exhausted due to the increased demands
from work. This may give rise to a greater number of unscheduled absences in
the future due to these workers too needing time away to rejuvenate themselves.
A possible spin off may result in high turnovers, another yet future possible
outcome.

What Can Be
Done To Help Control Absenteeism?

To prevent a possible work case scenario
as hinted at from the outset, companies can look into implementing systems
which will afford them greater control in terms of workforce management. There
are several approaches which can be applied to these situations.

Workforce
Management of Time Tracking Software

Time and attendance systems help employers to keep track of the hours worked by each
employee and also monitor attendance trends. These systems create great transparency
as they allow employees to be able to see their total entitlements, how much
they have already taken and what they have remaining at any given point in
time. Some systems can also be customized to send out alerts when there are
irregularities or even have a feature which allows a points and incident log to
let managers, supervisors and employees know their standing. There are many
obvious benefits to this solution.

Employee
Incentive Programs for Attendance

Some companies have opted to implement
an incentive program to encourage consistent attendance. Allowing extra
scheduled time off earned for no absences during a particular time frame has
proven to be an effective perk. Some companies have chosen to implement
measures which will cater to the overall well-being of their employees through
wellness programs. While initially costly, the long-term benefits are well
worth it.

Raising
Awareness of the Paid Time off Policy

The means utilizing the Human Resources
department to ensure that all workers are fully aware of the paid time off work
policy, gaining knowledge of their entitlements and the applicable sanctions associated
with persistent breaches.

Employers know that absences are unavoidable
due to any number of reasons -scheduled or unscheduled. Taking measures to stem
the effects of habitual absences on the remaining employees and the company’s
bottom line is the most prudent course of action.

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Guest post from Robin
Speculand:Leaders across the
world have been taught how to plan but not how to execute. Every university
offering a business degree has on their faculty a professor teaching strategy
but almost none have a professor teaching its execution.This has left a skills
gap among today’s leaders that heavily contributes to the downfall of company
attempts to execute their strategy, resulting in loss of market and shareholder
value. I call this the “Strategy Execution Skills Gap”.What’s required to execute
strategy has not been taught in the classroom. Change management, which is
taught, has been the default approach for strategy execution, but it is a
subset of execution and more importantly does not work for implementing
corporate strategy. If it did we would not have such a high failure rate. Recently
my company published our latest
research on how companies execute that revealed 67% fail.If too much emphasis is
placed on strategy compared with execution by the leadership, then it leads to
lower levels of performance because they become occupied with crafting it rather than executing it. High performance comes
from striking the right balance between crafting strategy and executing it. For
this to happen companies need to invest in closing the Strategy Execution
Skills Gap. Paul Leinwand, Cesare Mainardi and Art Kleiner stated in their 2015
Harvard Business Review article that
only 8% of leaders are effective at both creating good strategies and executing
them.It’s essential for
organizations to bridge the Strategy Execution Skills Gap by providing leaders
with the new thinking and approach that is required to correct the high failure
rate. For example, Oracle has made 100 acquisitions during a recent five-year
period. To support the organization’s leaders to execute the strategy and
bridge the gap, it conducted a program called Leading to Win in Asia Pacific
and focused on collaboration and learning the skills of execution.What leaders require is
the understanding and the tools. There are only a few options such as Palladium
Execution Premium Process™ (XPP) developed by Drs. Robert S. Kaplan and
David P. Norton and their Palladium associates. John Kotter offers the “8 Step
Process for Leading Change”. I offer the Three Broad Themes of Execution and
the Implementation Compass™ framework.Introducing the Three
Broad Themes of ExecutionSince 2000 my research
and client work has allowed me to review the practices of companies and speak
to leaders around the world. I discovered they were struggling to translate
strategy into the right actions. My research revealed that in successful
executions leaders identified three common broad themes present throughout the journey
of translating the strategy into action. These themes provided the structure
and enabled leaders to communicate the strategy. They also inspired the right
actions and created traction throughout the implementation journey. The Three Broad Themes
of Execution are:

1.Create Awareness

2. Build Excellence

3. Follow Through1. Create Awareness

Leaders know that
creating an awareness of the new strategy among employees is important, but
they tend to be weak at doing it because many equate building awareness with
giving a speech, attending meetings, or sending emails. Ironically, they spend
months and sometimes years crafting the strategy, and then they take only a
short time to explain to their people the Biz Case, the reason the organization
must transform. They expect them to act on the execution with the same
commitment, drive and passion they have. This “disconnect” harms the execution
before it even starts.From my latest
research, I discovered that only 5% of people can articulate their own
organization’s strategy.Creating
awareness largely overcomes this.2. Build Excellence

Once people have an
awareness of why the organization is
transforming, why they should
participate in the execution, what
their new role is and what actions
they should take, it’s imperative to Build Excellence. Far too often after a
strategy launch, people go back to “business as usual” within a few months.
There simply hasn’t been enough engagement.

To Build Excellence and
ensure traction, it’s critical to communicate
what’s working, including the lessons learned. Sharing best practices and
conveying next steps are also requirements. To ensure the new strategy is being
tracked properly, the measures must
be reviewed and changed when required. Because an organization’s culture drives the way the execution
happens, all aspects of its culture need to be examined.

Building engagement
also requires empowering people to change/innovate their work processes. By definition, when you
launch a new strategy, you’re asking people to work differently. Therefore, the people on the ground need to be
empowered to remove obsolete processes and initiate improvements.

3. Follow Through

Once engagement is
built, how do you maintain and sustain the momentum? After all, Excellence in
Execution doesn’t happen in a few weeks or months; it takes years. Leaders keep
the fire of enthusiasm alive by funneling the flames with regular reinforcement and review.It’s essential to
reinforce the right actions when they are
taken. People who are early adopters of the execution need encouragement to
take risks. When they don’t receive support, they stop doing the right things
and momentum is lost.Also, a regular review of the execution is necessary to
provide feedback, make corrections, hold people accountable and keep all
activity relevant. Excellence in Execution requires constant modifications to
remain on target.The bold areas above
come together to make up the Implementation Compass™
- a framework for identifying the right actions, adopted by governments and
companies. The strategy created is your organization’s map that shows where you are and where you want to go. The Compass shows you which actions to take
to move toward your strategy in the right direction throughout the
implementation journey. As a leader, you act as a guide showing people the best
path to take. Combined, the Three Broad Themes of Execution and the Implementation
Compass act as a bridge to cross the Strategy Execution Skills Gap.

Robin Speculand’s
latest book isExcellence
in Execution – HOW to Implement Your Strategy.A recognized pioneer and expert in strategy implementation, Robin Speculand
is driven to transform strategy implementation globally by inspiring leaders to
adopt a different approach. The founder and CEO of Bridges Business Consultancy
Int, he created the Implementation Hub, the world’s first online portal
dedicated to strategy implementation. His work begins as clients are crafting
their strategy and starting to think about the implementation. This
international bestselling author has sold more than 40,000 books worldwide and
been featured on BBC, Channel News Asia and CNBC. Robin is a masterful event
facilitator and an engaging keynote speaker. His work has been featured widely
in the media, including BBC Global, Gulf Connoisseur, CNBC, Channel News Asia, Oman
Observer, Sunday Telegraph and Financial Times.

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

A recent Harvard Business Review article examined Shell
Corporation’s adoption of an 18-month program designed to help the company’s
offshore workers give and receive feedback before their upcoming deployment.
With the help of an outside consultant, Shell’s experiment pushed the typically
tight-lipped crew to talk about everything from what it was like for them
growing up to what it was like working with each other.

The study found that the shift in how the men communicated
with each other, especially with respect to their vulnerabilities, contributed
to an 84% decline in Shell’s accident rates and the company's level of productivity in terms of numbers of
barrels. Efficiency and reliability exceeded the industry's previous benchmark.

Think for a moment: Does your workplace’s culture encourage
this sort of communication? Or does it unknowingly - and sometimes knowingly -
promote avoidance of honest and open communications? Especially when it comes
to giving and receiving constructive feedback?

Chances are, it’s the latter.

This isn’t unusual. The most difficult and important feedback
to give is usually the most necessary to hear and yet it largely goes
undelivered. That’s because honest feedback is difficult -- even painful -- to
give and to receive. It’s so much easier to shirk these uncomfortable
situations by just avoiding them.

This dynamic shows up in organizations of all shapes and
sizes. Though many managers and organizations struggle with providing feedback,
I’ve been able to boil feedback problems down to three different categories --
what I like to call the “Feedback Trifecta”.

In the Feedback Trifecta, the skills needed to give feedback
are underdeveloped, leaders responsible for delivering the feedback lack the
courage to do it, and the typical workplace environment unknowingly and
sometimes knowingly promotes avoiding honest and open communication. And
organizations pay for it, since avoidance merely causes problems to fester and
resentment to grow. Teams and entire companies can become feedback-resistant,
and will inevitably suffer.

No matter how you cut it, there will be pain when giving
feedback because saying what needs to be said has consequences. Thus, recognizing that feedback can cause
pain, and accepting that pain, is essential to being able to provide it.

With this in mind, I offer the following tips to for moving
past avoidance and making feedback a constructive part of your team’s routine:

●Remember that the goal of feedback should be to
encourage others and inspire their courage.

●Remember that feedback is crucial in moving us from one
point to another in our work, relationships and lives.

●When giving feedback, say what needs to be said in way
that enables others to hear it, with respect and concern for the person on the
receiving end.

●When receiving feedback, honor the giver by
appreciating his or her feedback

●When receiving feedback, remain in the role of receiver
rather than victim

●When receiving feedback, let yourself mourn for what
you have heard until you reach acceptance.

The tough consequence of giving feedback is that we can’t
choose for the other person how they choose to hear our words. More importantly,
we can’t choose for others what they choose to do with them. We don’t like that
feedback leads to people we care about and work with avoiding us, holding
grudges against us, and lashing out at us. We don’t like being the villain when
they choose to be the victim. This is why giving feedback takes courage. The
choice we have is to shy away from it, provide it haphazardly or give it
skillfully and courageously.

About Angela Sebaly:

Angela Sebaly, author of The
Courageous Leader (Wiley, spring 2017), is co-founder and CEO of the
firm Personify Leadership, a training provider. Formerly the Vice President of
Leadership Development for a global oil, gas and chemicals inspection company,
Angela also serves as principle consultant for the firm Invested Leadership, a
training provider. An entrepreneur
developing a global presence, Angela has been coaching, facilitating and
leading teams and organizations for over two decades.

Thursday, August 17, 2017

“Employees want to be
part of something that is bigger than a company. The business culture is
internally based, but the philanthropy is external. That volunteer ethos
provides something more than a quarterly return on earnings . . . it stretches employees
beyond their day-to-day job.”

Corporations
have long known that their best employees are successful often because they
have acquired skills beyond those needed
to be an employee. In fact, the greatest managers and executives learn that
skills to inspire and lead others do not
naturally come from working as a subordinate. Rather, they come from testing
out leadership skills in relationships with others.

Companies
can let those skills develop on their own – e.g. through the growth of the
individual as he or she is exposed to more work-based situations, and as he or
she must resolve corporate problems and adjust to new organizational scenarios.
But a company is remiss if it doesn’t actively challenge its employees by
providing and encouraging these growth-developing opportunities outside of work.

In
a recent study on business volunteerism and how it attracts, develops, and
retains talent, Deloitte found that 92% of the people surveyed agreed that
volunteering improves employees’ broader professional skill sets as well as
adding to their leadership skills. As a matter of fact, they learned that 80%
of active volunteers move more easily into leadership roles and grow their
careers further as a result.

More
specifically mentoring, is one of the best ways a company can grow its
employees as leaders in many other tangible ways. Let’s review these in detail:

1.
Mentoring teaches you to plan, to help others execute, and to be flexible--all traits of leadership.
As a mentor to a class of students or to individuals, you need to be organized
to fill your time productively. You will be potentially teaching a younger
mentee applicable real world skill sets. Patience and precision in your
communication will be required as you begin to educate a new learner.Meanwhile, witnessing another take hold of a
new idea requires your agility and empathy.Ultimately, you begin to understand that your shared knowledge is received by others and how.

2. Mentoring
hones your ability to think while you speak. As you become more
comfortable presenting to classrooms of students, you will find that your
dialogue is less rigid, and more conforming to how the conversation flows. You will
start to reorganize your thoughts – and perhaps your entire presentation –
based on how your students respond. Being flexible in your implementation and
thinking as you “do,” are invaluable traits for a leader.

3. Mentoring
positions you as the role model, and the mentees begin
to model themselves after your behavior. This is an unparalleled way to learn
how to be a leader. Since you represent the little-known business world to students,
as a mentor, you think about how to model a successful business person. You
think about your appearance, your language, and your style. You teach the
mentees how to keep a cool head through obstacles, and how to design a strategy
to overcome hurdles.

4. Mentoring
gives you confidence.As students model your
behavior, and as your internal fears surprise you by turning into successes, you
will naturally start to become more confident. This self-realized confidence
will make all the difference in your career path – especially when you are
presented with new scenarios in business, in which you will have to rely on
your own intuition, confidence, and abilities to overcome.

5. Mentoring
will prompt you to realize how far you have come, and how far you can bringmentees. As you continue to
meet with your students, you will start to think, “Oh! I’ve been here before. I
remember when I was their age …” And then you will start to consider how far
you have come on your own journey. This will not only contribute to your
confidence; it will also contribute to your appreciation of what mentoring
brings to these students. In due time, you will see the ripple effect that your
presence, your ideas, and your time has had on others. This contributes to a mentor’s new found empowerment.

6. Mentoring
builds humility.
As adults, we often focus on our achievements when discussing our careers with
others. We are trained to tout our successes in our resumes, and to bring out
the most hire-worthy aspects of our career during interviews. We might even use
industry-specific words that sound like we really
know our stuff. With students, however, this approach can be limiting, and even
inauthentic. Students already know that certain times require a focus on the
highlights, rather than the low points. But those aren’t what are interesting. Students
are far more curious about the struggles and the bumps in the road. They want
to hear how you thought you were defeated, and what you did next. And to best
relate to the students, mentors will learn how to use the language the students
speak. Bring the conversation to their level. When you think about the needs of
your audience, you become a better
leader.

7. Mentoring
builds reliability. At one point, you may
have been the “I’m-always-10-minutes-late” person. Or maybe you were the
quintessential procrastinator. As a mentor, your inclination to be late or to procrastinate
will diminish quickly. Before long you will learn how to structure your day
accordingly because you will feel responsible to others who need you and who
look up to you. What impact will your tardiness have to your mentee? You will learn the value of being reliable to
others.

8.
Perhaps one of the most elusive, but also one of the most valuable skills, is learning
how tolisten better. As
you grow in your mentorship, you will learn to listen more, and pick up on non-verbal
cues. Eventually, you will communicate based on this feedback. A good mentor
can take the pulse of the mentees as a dialogue progresses. He or she can learn
how to gauge the interest of a class or an individual, and determine if a
different tactic should be used. More importantly, a great mentor – and a great
leader uses feedback to shape their communication and become even stronger and
more effective. And the mentor learns a valuable asset for leadership.

As
a mentor, you may feel you are learning these traits just so that you can
“survive.” But before long, you will see that these traits also benefit you in
the C-Suite. In this case, the “giving” does result in the “receiving.” I
encourage you to join our cause at www.teachtowork.com.
I am confident you will impact your life, by impacting others.

Patty Alper, author of Teach to Work: How a Mentor, a Mentee, and a Project Can Close the Skills Gap in America has been in the field of marketing, communications, and sales for thirty-five years. She's successfully served firms in the real estate, hospitality, finance, and non-profit sectors through her consulting practice, The Alper Portfolio Group, Inc. For eighteen years, she has been a trustee of the Alper Family Foundation. It is through her philanthropic giving that she became engaged with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) and how she ultimately developed the "Adopt a Class" program. Alper was honored as the 2010 NFTE Philanthropist of the Year, DC region and currently sits on the National Board.

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Recently,
I stepped into an elevator on the way to a meeting and noticed that the button
you press to close the door quickly was much more worn than the one you press
to keep the door open. You’ve probably done the same as me: jabbing the button
to get the door closed so I can get ON with things. And it made me laugh,
really, because it’s a delightful microcosm of how we’re always trying to rush things,
big and small, in business and in life.

In our
organizations, there’s a constant drumbeat of busyness. As a manager, it’s
tempting to see your role as being to give advice and
encourage action. That’s part of it, for sure. But I’ve discovered that to have
more of an impact, to be what Peter Drucker would call “the effective executive,”
managers and leaders need to stay curious a little longer and rush to action
and advice a little slower. Less jabbing the “close door” button, more time
thinking about which floor you’d like the elevator to take you to.

In The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More &
Change the Way You Lead Forever, I name seven questions that will help busy
managers stay curious and lift their leadership game. Despite the title of the
book, it isn’t about turning these managers into coaches. But it is about helping them be more
coach-like, an underutilized leadership skill.

But Who Has the Time for That?

The
greatest resistance that comes from this simple invitation — to stay curious
longer, rush to action and advice a little more slowly — is, of course, the
lack of time. Everyone’s busy, so surely the fastest thing to do is just tell
them what to do.

There
are three reasons giving advice can be a false economy. The first is that often
you’re providing solutions to the wrong challenge. It’s a pretty good bet that
the first challenge someone presents to you is not the real challenge. Rather,
it’s a symptom, a best guess, a smoke screen, a half-baked solution, or
something else — just not actually the real challenge.

Second,
in nominating yourself as the source of all wisdom, you’re being trained by
your people to do their work for them. You’re complicit in moving them away
from being self-sufficient, confident, masterful and autonomous. You’re setting
yourself up as the bottleneck and the road block.

And
finally, if I may be blunt, your advice just isn’t as good as you think it is.

Here,
then, are seven proven questions that will help you stay curious longer, rush
to action and advice a little more slowly, and change the way you lead forever.

#1: The Kickstart Question: What’s on your mind?

The
key to having a good conversation is getting off on the right foot. My first coaching
question is called the Kickstart Question because it does just that — it kickstarts
a conversation and accelerates it into interesting territory. It finds a sweet
spot in being an open-ended question (You tell me what you want to talk about .
. .) that encourages focus and gets us to the stuff that matters (. . . but
let’s talk about something important).

#2: The AWE Question: And what else?

I
believe that the AWE Question is the best coaching question in the world. We know
that the first answer to a question is never the only answer, so asking this
question draws out more from any coaching conversation — more wisdom, more
possibilities. It also works as a self-management tool for you. If you’re
asking this, you’re resisting the temptation to jump in and offer up solutions.
This question keeps the elevator door open, so to speak.

#3: The Focus Question: What’s the real challenge here
for you?

This question helps us get
to the heart of an issue instead of immediately jumping in to solve an entirely
different problem. The words “real” and “for you” have the power to provoke
self-reflection and a deeper level of thought than does merely “What’s the
challenge here?”

#4: The Foundation Question: What do you want?

This can be a difficult question
to ask (and even more difficult to answer), but asking it can often get us to the
heart of things. That’s because we don’t always know exactly what we want, even
if at first we think we do. This question demands a clear answer — and forces you
to come up with the best way to help, without jumping in and taking over.

#5: The Lazy Question: How can I help?

Once you know what the
other person wants, the next step is asking how you might assist. This question
invites the other person to make a clear request. In order for them to request
something of you, they need to be clear about what they need. The question
keeps you both curious and lazy — if you find out how exactly you can help,
you’re less likely to spend time doing things you merely think people want you to do.

#6: The Strategic Question: If you’re saying yes to this,
what are you saying no to?

If you have a hard time
saying no, this question is for you. You’re not alone, of course. We’re all
pretty good at saying yes, even though we’re already at full capacity. The
result is that we’re failing to make as much difference as we’d hope on too
many things. But to truly commit to something and make a difference, you’ve got
to create space. And a “yes” is empty without a strong “no.” When you ask this
question, you bring forth a promise to prioritize and make a commitment real.

#7: The Learning Question: What was most useful for you?

This is the perfect
question to conclude a conversation. It’s not just about encouraging learning
and development, though that does happen, but also about extracting the value
from the conversation. People remember more when they find the answer
themselves. Asking this question is an effortless way to reinforce what was
discussed during the conversation.

Which Floor?

We’re all on an elevator,
headed somewhere. It’s tempting to get those doors shut ASAP and hurry on.
Don’t worry, the doors will shut soon enough. Meantime, use these seven
questions to get clearer on exactly which floor you’d like arrive.